I think criticizing prominent people claiming the mantle of “communism” is important. They’re often pushing some kind of insane rhetoric or ideology rather than a material program to change. But sometimes, it’s important to understand why they are saying that.
A lot of the time, people who start saying extreme things (regardless of “side”) are doing so because they have seen and/or experienced repeated failures of our system to make positive changes in people’s lives. When someone says, “Voting is useless; we gotta overthrow the system,” they aren’t wrong. While their tactics are often not useful, they at least have a conception that the system’s problems go well beyond the ballot box’s capabilities.
However, liberals who shit on what I might even derisively refer to as “lifestyle” communists always look so much worse to me.
A tweet making its rounds by someone calling themselves “Bob’s Burgers Urbanist” decries the critique of voting. This person says, “People on Twitter will really be like, ‘You believe in voting? That pales in effectiveness to my strategy, overthrowing the system,’ and then not overthrow the system.”
And yes, I do think that people simply saying “overthrow the system” are utopian and often, well, don’t overthrow the system. However, that isn’t this person’s point. Her point is to attack comedian Aamer Rahman, who is talking about white people lecturing black and brown people over apathy to elections.
This person continues, “You can't do the ‘scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds’ thing when your position is explicitly ‘we should own the libs by getting Trump elected’.”
Let’s have a look at what Rahman actually said:
A lot of people want the Democrats to lose, understandably. A lot of people want the Democrats to be punished and to suffer historic and humiliating defeat.
And white liberals are very tense, right? They're like, “Is that what you really want? You want Trump to come back? You want Trump to win?”
What I want is for you to not lecture us on how to respond to a genocide you didn't try to stop, okay? “You think that's a good idea? You think that's a good idea for your community? Because it's your community that's going to suffer when Trump comes back. Because people like you are going to suffer, what do you think of that?”
I think that a political system that ultimately makes you choose between genocidal dementia and cheeseburger-powered fake tan Hitler is a system worth overthrowing, okay? Maybe that is the conclusion you should be coming to instead of lecturing black and brown people on why they don't worship the Democrats, okay?
This man’s position is clearly not “we should own the libs by getting Trump elected.” He is simply empathizing with people who want the Democrats to lose (“a lot of people want…”). He goes on to call Trump a “cheeseburger-powered fake tan Hitler.” I don’t think this can be mistaken for him calling on people to vote for Trump.
The screenshots this account uses to make that assertion are, in my opinion, deliberately taken out of context because it is impossible to understand this quote that way from even a grammatical perspective.
And while I think that liberals, leftists, and “lifestyle” communists are ultimately supporters of the same order (even if inadvertently), I will not tell you that they should put their disillusionment in check to participate in liberal democracy “for everyone’s sake.”
That’s just the Champ, Chief, Kiddo meme:
Listen, kiddo, I get it. I don't like the two-party system. I think our country's corrupt, and quite frankly, I don't want to vote for Biden. It feels like voting for a Republican. But I'm gonna do it! You wanna know why? Because the alternative is a fucking fascist! A fascist! It’s a fascist! Maybe we can have the conversation about dismantling the two-party system when a fascist isn't running! Maybe we can do that later, kiddo! Champ? Chief? Maybe we can talk about it later!
This is the most repugnant, alienating type of rhetoric. The “Oh, I get it, everything is very bad, but you really should vote, or it will get worse” is perhaps the most intense smarm liberals can conjure. The point is always to neutralize the concerns they feel are in their way and nothing more. The “Get Biden in and Push Him Left” crew never thought you could push him “left,” they just, at best, think the Democrats are the lesser of two evils (at worst, it is their job to mobilize the left to vote for Democrats).
This living meme from 2020 and that Bob’s Burgers Urbanist person’s agenda isn’t to empathize; it’s to smear while appearing to empathize. They demonstrate that they “know” the system is corrupt, even that voting doesn’t “feel good.” But you’re the asshole if you would dare act on those things. Either you vote for Biden, or you obviously want Trump.
I don’t give a flying fuck which one is in the Oval Office. While technology and ideology have changed, political policy has been more or less the same my whole life.
People are tired of this fucking lecture. And everyone who likes, retweets, or otherwise pushes some kind of “Oh, you think voting doesn’t work? Huh huh, how’s that revolution coming?” is clearly nothing more than a shithead liberal who sees others as obstacles rather than people.
I’d love it to stop, but I’ll have to settle for showing it for what it is.
Using the word "push" acknowledges that Biden will lean right when left to his own devices. Once he's in power there is no leverage to push him left with. It's illogical manipulation.
I think this critique tracks. But you kinda leave on a nothing track, besides saying no one should have said anything because attempting to opt out of bs is a reasonable response. That said, this feels a little disrespectful of subjective contingency, not saying that kinda deterministic thinking should rule you. It’s super important, but not the nadir of importance.
In Alabama I voted dem. In ny I vote to expand the field. They’re my votes and the points to try to do a thing and do other things.
My annoyance is far more with the only vote ppl as if literally only ballot day matters, not the material run up. Which is why I still snoop on your content. And the lib asking people to pls shut up there’s baddies reminds me of a boss who threatened to shoot the staff if they didn’t “row the boat together”